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Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 4:1, 5; 3:5-6, 8; Phil. 1:20-21a; Col. 1:25-28; Eph. 3:8-11; 5:32
In the previous two chapters we saw the sufferings of Brother Nee and the spiritual lessons he learned through them. The Gospels show us that the Lord Jesus also suffered persecution from the religious Jews. They despised Him, criticized Him, opposed Him, and attacked Him. They also spread evil and false rumors concerning Him. The book of Acts and the Epistles show that the Judaizers persecuted the apostles in the same way. Today the religious people also persecute the real followers of the Lord in His recovery. They despise, criticize, oppose, attack, and spread false rumors about those who follow the Lord in His recovery.
Besides enduring such attacks from Christianity, we have seen that Brother Nee also suffered from certain ones among us. He was unjustly excommunicated, and he suffered from dissenting ones. The dissenting ones may say something good about the leading ones or the church, but what they say positively is always followed by the word but. They may say, “Brother So-and-so is such a good brother who ministers life to people, but...” What comes after the word but is always negative.
Brother Nee also suffered from others’ immaturity and incompetence. The immature ones do not like to labor; they like to talk. In an office some people do not work properly, but they talk a lot. In the church life those who are laborers do not talk much. The ones who talk much do not labor much. The apostle Paul calls such people “busybodies” (2 Thes. 3:11; 1 Tim. 5:13). There is a difference between talkers and workers. In the beginning of the church life, I was somewhat deceived by the talkers. I thought they loved the Lord so much because they expressed so much concern for the Lord’s work. Eventually, I found out that these talkers were not genuine. The immature and incompetent ones are very talkative, and Brother Nee suffered from such ones.
He also suffered from the brothers’ stubbornness, their unwillingness to say Amen to his leading from the Lord. We have to learn, on the one hand, to suffer others’ stubbornness, but on the other hand, to drop our stubbornness. We should always learn to go along with the brothers. We should not trust in ourselves so much. Instead, we must learn to trust in our brothers and sisters. We have also seen that Brother Nee suffered from others’ ambition for position and from rebellion among the saints.
Now that we have seen something concerning the revelations Brother Nee received from the Lord and his sufferings, we want to see something concerning his ministry. Following the sufferings is the ministry. The ministry comes out of revelation plus suffering. Without revelation a person cannot have any ministry because he has nothing with which to minister. But if a person has revelation without suffering, he still does not have a ministry. He may have a gift to teach, but there is a great difference between a gift and a ministry. The ministry is something higher, deeper, and more valuable. A gift in itself may be superficial, low, and cheap.
If we have the revelation, God will put us into the furnace, the oven, so that we can pass through the sufferings. Through the sufferings, we learn the real lessons in life. Then we will have the ministry. We all have to be deeply impressed with these two things — revelation and suffering. The ministry comes out of revelation and suffering.
The book of Acts and the Epistles of Paul show us his sufferings (Col. 1:24). We know by Paul’s writings that before he passed through the sufferings, he received revelations (2 Cor. 12:1, 7). He first received the revelations, but this does not mean that after receiving them he immediately went out to eloquently pass on his knowledge to people. If he had done this, it would not have been the ministry. What he shared would have been merely a teaching or an exercise of his gift but not the ministry. We know, however, that the apostle Paul was not like this. After he received the revelations of the Lord, the Lord put him into the oven, into the fire, to be burned, to suffer. In his writings we see the sequence of the revelations first and then the sufferings. Then the ministry came out of these two things.
The revelation has to be burned into us. We may use the illustration of making a certain kind of porcelain vase. An artist may paint a picture on the vase, but the vase then needs to be burned. Then the picture is burned into the vase. After the picture has been burned into the vase, it can never be erased because it is one with the vase. Our receiving the revelation may be compared to the vase receiving the picture. But after this the revelation needs to be burned into us in order to make the revelation one with us. To receive revelation is one thing; to be burned with the revelation is another thing.
The revelation is burned into us by suffering. No real minister of God can avoid suffering. This is impossible. We all need it. How much life and how much reality of the riches of Christ we can minister depends upon two elements — how much revelation we have received plus how much we have suffered for what has been revealed to us. Suffering has to be added to revelation. Then we have a ministry.
In all the Epistles we can see three things — the revelation, the suffering, and the ministry. Then there is the work. The work comes not out of the teaching or the gift but out of the ministry. Paul said that he had received this ministry (2 Cor. 4:1) and that he was made a minister of the new covenant (3:6). Today the word minister has been spoiled because of being misused in Christianity. We have to realize what a minister is. A minister is one who has a real ministry that was created with two things — revelation plus suffering.
We may ask what the difference is between the gifts and the ministry. The book of Numbers records how Balaam’s donkey spoke a human language (22:28). Was that a ministry? That was not a ministry but a gift. This difference may also be illustrated by a Chinese person who speaks both Chinese and English. Because the Chinese language has been wrought into him, he speaks in Chinese spontaneously without effort. Because Chinese has been constituted into him, his speaking in Chinese is a “ministry.” Because English has not been wrought into him, his speaking in English is a “gift.”
What is a ministry? A ministry is the expression of what you are. To minister is to express what you are. To exercise a gift, though, may be a performance. When a man walks, moves, acts, and speaks, he expresses what he is. His expression of what he is, is his “ministry.” A monkey can sometimes be trained to act like a man, but that is just a performance. That is a “gift.” In today’s Christianity there are many performances.
If the apostle Paul were to stay with us for a month, we would see that he himself is what he ministers. Paul was really what he ministered because what he had seen was wrought into his being. Eventually, he ministered what he was. The person was the message. In today’s Christianity a person may be merely eloquent and learned. His speaking may even be with a certain kind of religious tone. That is a performance. It is not the real thing. Paul, however, was different.
I came to know some famous Christian workers who talked much about the lessons of the cross. When I was with them, though, I did not see these lessons. My experience with Brother Nee was different. I was with him for over eighteen years. Sometimes he spoke about the cross, but I saw the cross in him. The sufferings that came to him from many directions were the working of the cross. The cross had been worked into Brother Nee. What he ministered was not merely a teaching by a gift. What he had was a ministry, and that ministry was what he was.
We should not appreciate the gifts so much. It was miraculous for Balaam’s donkey to speak a human language, but we should not be overly excited about something like that. Instead, we have to gain the proper ministry. Then we will minister what we are to people. Our eloquence and our gift mean very little. It is easy for the devil to take advantage of our eloquence and gift to cheat us. We should not trust or appreciate our eloquence, our gift, or our talent. We may admire a certain person because he is so talented, but to be talented alone is terrible. In order to build up the church, we do not need mere gifts and teachings. We need the ministry. We need brothers and sisters who have been burned with some things revealed by God. Then they will have the ministry.
When a person has a ministry, he may not need to speak very much. His very presence ministers life to people. His presence in a meeting means much. If he is there, the meeting will be rich. If he is absent, the meeting will have a lack. Even his silent presence in the meetings makes a difference because he is a person who has a real ministry. He does not have mere teachings, knowledge, or gifts, but something of God in eternity has been wrought into his being. The presence of such a person makes a difference.
When the saints bring their troubles and problems into the presence of such a person, sometimes there is no need for him to say a word, and the problems will be solved. I saw this in the past. When the saints bring their problems into such a person’s presence, they receive the light. This person’s presence becomes the light because light has been wrought into his being. When others are in his presence, they are under the enlightening. They see light in his light. Today in the church we need the ministry. Brother Nee always belittled and even condemned the gifts. He always stressed the ministry again and again.
First and 2 Corinthians show the distinction between the gifts and the ministry. The first Epistle deals negatively with the gifts; the second speaks positively about the ministry. The church needs the ministry much more than the gifts. In the first Epistle to the Corinthians, Paul depreciated the gifts. In the second Epistle, the ministry is emphasized again and again. We have received this ministry, and this ministry is the ministry of the Spirit and of life (3:6, 8). What is needed in the churches today is the ministry, not the gifts. After receiving the revelation, Brother Nee passed through many sufferings. Then the ministry came out of him. He had the ministry.
Brother Nee’s ministry was clearly of two aspects — Christ and the church. His ministry was a fully, properly, and adequately balanced ministry. Through my reading and knowledge of church history, I have come to know something concerning the lives of many famous spiritual persons from the first century to the present. I never saw a person like Brother Nee who was so adequately and thoroughly balanced with these two aspects — Christ and the church. He really saw the vision of Christ, and he also received the revelation of the church. His publications were always on Christ and the church. They were properly balanced (see the preface to The Orthodoxy of the Church). He published many books concerning Christ as life and everything to us. The reality, or the content, of the church is Christ Himself. He also published many books on the practice, the practicality, of the church. Brother Nee’s ministry on Christ was not for the believers individually. The vision of Christ that Brother Nee received for his ministry was of Christ for the church.
Many so-called spiritual people teach about Christ for the Christians individually. In their teaching they do not care for the church. They are even afraid to speak about the church because they realize that this will cause problems. To stay away from these problems, they just take care of Christ for the believers’ individual life. Brother Nee was different. The vision he received was concerning Christ as the believers’ life and everything for the building up of the church.
The Christ whom the believers experience is the reality, the content, of the church. In order to match this reality, the practicality of the church is needed. The reality of the church is the content. The practicality of the church is the expression. Christ is not merely for the individual Christians but for the corporate Body of Christ. His being for the individual Christians is for the building up of His corporate Body.
The church’s reality is Christ being realized by us individual Christians in a corporate way. To match this reality, we need the practice of the church. We cannot hold Christ as the reality in an individual way. We must come out of our private interests and come together with Christ as the reality to practice the church life. Then we can testify, even to God’s enemy, that we are one and that we have not only the reality but also the practicality of the church.
Christ and the church were the main points of Brother Nee’s ministry. I have realized what Brother Nee’s ministry is to such an extent by reading his books and by being with him. I thank God and praise the Lord that I had the privilege of listening to his messages, of having personal, direct talks with him, and of seeing how he conducted himself. When I initially read some of his articles in 1925, I thought he must be an old, experienced man. Eventually, I found out that he was a very young man. At that time he was twenty-two years old, and I was twenty. I first came in contact with him by reading his publications.
Eventually, I read all Brother Nee’s writings. I also edited many of his messages. I was assigned to edit one of his three series of editions of The Christian. Beginning in 1934 the main messages in that magazine were from Brother Nee, but I did the editing. Thus, I had the privilege of reading all these writings. His writings show that his ministry was of two aspects — Christ and the church. Christ is the reality, the content, of the church, and the church needs the practicality to match the reality.
In 1923 Brother Nee published his first magazine called The Present Testimony. His second magazine, The Christian, began to be published in 1925 and continued for two years through 1926. After 1926 Brother Nee began to publish The Present Testimony again for about seven years. The Present Testimony was mainly on the side of Christ being life to us. It presented the revelation of the person and work of Christ, the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, and the ascension of Christ. That was the deepest spiritual publication in all of Christianity at that time. The Christian mainly covered things for young Christians, for new beginners. In 1934 Brother Nee had the burden to publish The Christian again. By that time I was in the work, so he gave the editing responsibility to me. From that year he took care of The Present Testimony, and I was charged to take care of The Christian. Besides this he published many books on both Christ and the church. His ministry was composed of Christ and the church.
Many in Christianity accept Brother Nee’s ministry on Christ, but they reject his ministry on the practicality of the church. I have shared previously how Brother Nee went to visit the Plymouth Brethren in England in 1933. Before that time he had read many of the Brethren’s writings. Also, through Miss M. E. Barber, he became acquainted with the writings of Jessie Penn-Lewis and T. Austin-Sparks. When he went to visit the Brethren in 1933, he also went to visit Brother Austin-Sparks at Honor Oak in London. The Brethren were bothered about this because they were exclusive. They thought that Brother Nee had joined them and that he should not contact Brother Austin-Sparks’s group. During that time the Brethren took him to Canada and the United States. When he returned, he personally told me all the things concerning his trip.
In our consideration we realized that we could neither follow the way of the Brethren nor follow the way of Brother Austin-Sparks. The way of the Brethren was exclusive, and the way of Brother Austin-Sparks was without practicality. The Brethren wrote us several letters, and we replied to them in 1935.
Later, Brother Nee went to Europe again in 1938, and he stayed there for one and a half years to have more fellowship. Mostly he was with Brother Austin-Sparks’s group at Honor Oak. He was also invited to speak in some of the Scandinavian countries. In those one and a half years, he ministered mainly on the aspect of Christ as life because he realized that the people there were not ready to accept the aspect of the church in a practical way. The Normal Christian Life is a collection of the messages Brother Nee gave then. These messages were collected and edited by Angus Kinnear, who was a medical student under Brother Nee’s teaching.
While Brother Nee was there, he also translated The Normal Christian Church Life from Chinese into English. He did that, of course, with a purpose. This book was translated in London while he was staying at Honor Oak. Miss Fishbacher helped him in this translation work. That book was printed by the bookroom of Brother Austin-Sparks. After it was published, it stirred up some problems. Brother Austin-Sparks told me many years later that The Normal Christian Church Life should either not be published anymore or that some corrections and changes should be made in it. Of course, The Normal Christian Church Life is about the practicality of the church and the truth concerning one church in one city.
At the end of Brother Nee’s one-and-a-half-year stay in England, the people at Honor Oak had a farewell meeting for him and asked him to give a word. He gave a short word saying that people’s talking about the church is like carpenters’ talking about making a chair. It is one thing to talk about making a chair, but where is the chair? Then he said, “Many people are talking about the church, but I would ask, ‘Where is the church?’”
Brother Nee was at Honor Oak in 1938. Twenty years later I was invited to the same place by Brother Austin-Sparks. I stayed there for one month in 1958. Brother Austin-Sparks turned all the meetings over to me. These included both the conference meetings and all the regular meetings. The night before I was going to leave, there was a meeting. I went to the meeting with the thought that I would not be asked to speak since I was going to leave the next day. Then Brother Austin-Sparks came to me and said, “Brother Lee, you have to speak tonight.” I said that I did not have any thought about speaking. He jokingly responded by reminding me that I had said that in the church life we have to take care of the feeling of the brothers. I took his word and went to the platform, without any thought beforehand about what I should speak. When I was on the platform, I asked the congregation to read Revelation 1. Then I shared that the ministry is for the local churches, not the local churches for the ministry. Regardless of how good, how spiritual, and how high one’s ministry is, it still must be for the local churches. Regardless of how degraded the local churches are, they are still the lampstands.
Eventually, I found out that Brother Austin-Sparks’s way was the opposite of this. His way was to use a group of believers to support his ministry. That meant that his meeting was for the ministry, and the ministry was not for the church. A few years after I gave that final message at Honor Oak, someone told me that my word tore down the whole situation there. The entire month that I was there, Brother Austin-Sparks was always with me on the platform, presiding over the meetings. After the meetings were over, he was always so happy with me because I was speaking concerning Christ as life, just as he did. But after I gave that final message, he quickly walked down from the platform by himself, leaving me there alone. As I walked down from the platform by myself, one of the elders there came to me and said that Brother Nee’s ministry concerning the church and its practicality had been rejected there twenty years ago. He said that the Lord had not forgotten this and sent me there twenty years later to remind them of the same thing.
In 1938 and 1939 Brother Nee was fully accepted by the seeking Christians in northern Europe in his ministry on Christ as life. But on the practicality of the church, the spiritual situation in that area did not allow him to fulfill his ministry completely. When he came back to China after this time, he had his first conference on the Body of Christ. He cabled me, asking me to come to Shanghai for that conference. During that time he told me the stories about his time in Europe. He told me that on the whole earth, there was only one group that could “echo” what we had seen of the Body of Christ. That was Brother Austin-Sparks’s group. Brother Nee, however, said that there was a big “but.” They saw something concerning the principle of the Body, but they did not see the practical side of the church life. Brother Nee told me and another brother much concerning his time at Honor Oak. The other brother proposed that we invite Brother Austin-Sparks to come to us. Brother Nee was really wise. He said that the time was not ripe.
Eventually, I was sent from mainland China to Taiwan, and we started the work there in 1949. After six years, in 1955, there was a great increase in our number. Some of the leading ones in Taiwan received some letters from abroad encouraging them to invite Brother Austin-Sparks. Two of the leading ones in Taiwan thought we needed the help in spirituality. I agreed with them, but I said that we had to be careful. I told the brothers that in a recent issue of Brother Austin-Sparks’s paper, The Witness and the Testimony, there was a small paragraph written by him in which he expressed his thanks to the people who sent him Christmas cards. That was the January issue of 1955. I told the brothers that we had been enlightened by the Lord to cast down and give up all the things related to Christmas. Yet here was a spiritual person still expressing his thanks to the people who gave him Christmas cards. I told them that we know people not always by the main points but by the small things. This is because people can be very careful about the main points. They can pretend and cover things. But they are careless with the small things. We have to learn to know people not by the “head” but by the “tail.”
For this reason I told the brothers that we had to be careful. We had good fellowship with those Christians in England. But I said, “Suppose we invite him to come, and he is dissenting in something. Then we will have trouble. It might be better to keep our good fellowship with him without any direct contact.” Two weeks later, the two brothers again brought up the subject of inviting Brother Austin-Sparks. I went along with them, agreeing to invite him. I wrote the invitation, and he came to Taiwan in 1955.
Our time with him was wonderful during his first visit. He ministered on the spiritual side of Christ as life according to what we expected. Then we invited him to come a second time, but during his second visit he opposed the practicality of the church, the ground of the church. I had over thirty long talks with him. Each session was about two or three hours. But he was greatly opposed to the ground of the church. The practicality of the church is a great truth, but to practice this truth requires the paying of a price.
I say again that Brother Nee’s ministry in the aspect of Christ was fully accepted, but his ministry in the aspect of the church was fully rejected. Some may feel that it is sufficient just to publish Brother Nee’s books concerning Christ. However, it is altogether unfair to hide the books by Brother Nee concerning the church. This is dishonest. I was with Brother Nee day after day for many years, and he opened up his heart to me many times. I can say, at the very least, that I was one of three persons who knew him to the uttermost. I know where he stood. I was sent out of mainland China by Brother Nee. I asked him why he made such a decision. He told me that maybe the enemy would wipe us out in China. He said that if I were to go out, we would still have something left. In this sense, I was charged by him to be responsible for what the Lord had shown to him. The more that people try to hide Brother Nee’s books on the church, the more burdened I am to put them out.
Eventually, a false rumor of two aspects was being spread. The first aspect was that Brother Nee changed his concept about the practicality of the church, the ground of the church, after the Second World War. The second aspect was that because Witness Lee is so much for the practicality of the church life, he is different from Watchman Nee. There is still a struggle and a battle concerning the practicality of the church life. When we published Further Talks on the Church Life, I documented every chapter. At the beginning of each chapter are the date and the place where the message was given. This proves that after the war Brother Nee did not change his concept about the practice of the church. All the messages in Further Talks on the Church Life were given by Brother Nee from 1948 to 1951. In these messages Brother Nee confirmed that what he had seen in 1937 concerning the practicality of the church life was absolutely right. He had not changed at all in his view concerning the ground of the church.
It is absolutely dishonest to give people a wrong impression that Brother Nee was only for the revelation and experience of Christ and not for the church life. I have the burden to put out all his books on the practicality of the church life. There has been a real struggle and battle over this truth and its practice. I have been suffering for many years because of this one thing. Because of Brother Austin-Sparks’s dissenting speaking in the Far East, some young people were influenced and became rebellious. They held the concept that there was no need to have a practical church life. They felt that as long as we live by Christ, we are spiritually the Body of Christ.
The battle is still raging today over the revelation and ministry of Brother Nee, which was concerning both Christ and the church. To publish merely the books by him concerning Christ, in a sense, is a help to the saints. But in another sense, it is a cheating and a deceiving. This is not fair to Brother Nee. If people are fair, they should put out all the writings by Brother Nee and let the readers have their own discernment. We all have to be clear about how subtle the enemy is. I am happy to see Brother Nee’s books on Christ as life published, but it is the enemy’s subtlety that the books by Brother Nee on the practicality of the church life would be hidden. It is also a devilish, subtle lie to say that Brother Nee changed his concept concerning the church and that because of this, Witness Lee is different from Watchman Nee.
It is because of the practicality of the church that I am suffering so much opposition and so many attacks. But what can I do? I have to be faithful to the Lord, and I also have to be loyal to Brother Nee’s commission. We have to realize that in all the battles and struggles, the victory is the Lord’s. He has won the victory. We need to see where we are standing today and the real ministry that the Lord has given us through Brother Nee. His ministry was not the ministry of Christ only. His ministry was the ministry of Christ for the church. Christ and the church — this is our vision, this is what we are suffering for, and eventually this becomes our ministry.
